Acting to Spread Movements

Last registered on September 19, 2023

View Trial History

Pre-Trial

Trial Information

General Information

Title

Acting to Spread Movements

RCT ID

AEARCTR-0011250

Initial registration date

April 11, 2023

Initial registration date is when the trial was registered.

It corresponds to when the registration was submitted to the Registry to be reviewed for publication.

First published

April 13, 2023, 4:39 PM EDT

First published corresponds to when the trial was first made public on the Registry after being reviewed.

Last updated

September 19, 2023, 11:32 AM EDT

Last updated is the most recent time when changes to the trial's registration were published.

Locations

Country

United States of America

Region

Primary Investigator

Name

Lucy Page

Affiliation

Contact Primary Investigator

Other Primary Investigator(s)

PI Name

Hannah Ruebeck

PI Affiliation

MIT Department of Economics

Contact Investigator

Additional Trial Information

Status

In development

Start date

2023-04-11

End date

2023-12-31

Keywords

Behavior, Electoral, Environment & Energy

Additional Keywords

JEL code(s)

Q54, Q58, D72, D91

Secondary IDs

Prior work

This trial does not extend or rely on any prior RCTs.

Abstract

Addressing climate change requires immediate government action in high-emitting countries like the US. Moreover, continuing to enact climate policy under a newly split US Congress will require bipartisan action. In this project, we test whether opportunities to invite others to take political action, as well as receiving these invitations, increases political climate advocacy. We explore these questions in an online experiment with participants recruited via social media.

External Link(s)

Registration Citation

Citation

Page, Lucy and Hannah Ruebeck. 2023. "Acting to Spread Movements." AEA RCT Registry. September 19. https://doi.org/10.1257/rct.11250-4.0

Sponsors & Partners

Experimental Details

Interventions

Intervention(s)

In the main experimental structure, the interventions will be (1) knowing that future survey participants will be told (and in some cases invited to join you) if you choose to contact Congress about climate change during the survey, and (2) receiving an invitation from an earlier survey participant to join them in contacting Congress. In one sub-experiment, participants will choose between telling returning participants that they contacted Congress or delegating a donation to carbon offsets, and they will be randomized to see or not see information on whether returning participants believe climate change is human-caused.

Intervention Start Date

2023-04-11

Intervention End Date

2023-10-31

Primary Outcomes

Primary Outcomes (end points)

In the main experimental structure, our single primary outcome is whether participants email Congress via a form embedded in our survey.

In a sub-experiment among participants who choose to contact Congress, our primary outcome will be whether participants choose to tell returning participants that they contacted Congress vs. delegating a carbon-offset donation by the research team.

Primary Outcomes (explanation)

Secondary Outcomes

Secondary Outcomes (end points)

In Wave 1:
-Beliefs about others' political participation during the survey
-Party perceptions and affective polarization
-Length and content of letter to Congress

In Wave 2:
-Beliefs about others' political participation during the survey
-Party perceptions and affective polarization
-Length and content of letter to Congress
-Beliefs about support for and likelihood of passing climate policy in the US
-Beliefs about the value of contacting Congress
-Perceived social norms around contacting Congress

Secondary Outcomes (explanation)

Experimental Design

This experiment has three broad parts.

Wave-1 action experiment: First, we recruit a sample of Democrats and offer them the opportunity to contact Congress. We randomize these participants between three treatments arms. In A0, participants will choose whether to contact Congress or not with no mention of future participants learning that they did so. In A1, participants are told that if they contact Congress, up to 10 future participants in a particular demographic group will be told that they did so, after those participants decide whether to contact Congress or not. In A2, participants are told that if they contact Congress, up to 10 future participants in a particular demographic group will be told that they did so, before those participants decide whether to contact Congress or not.

WTP experiment: We invite all A0 participants who contacted Congress to take a second survey. In this survey, we show them 20 returning participants who could be paired with them and ask them to choose, for each one, if we should show that participant a basic demographic profile of them and donate $3-$6 to carbon offsets or show them an extended profile saying that they contacted Congress. The returning participants will vary in traits including their political party and whether they would see the profile before or after deciding whether to contact Congress. Participants will also be randomized to make choices with or without information on whether returning participants believe climate change is mostly human-caused.

Follow-up WTP experiment: We will run a follow-up of the WTP experiment in which we randomize participants to have the option to hide their own political affiliation from profiles passed on to returning participants. In addition to this WTP experiment, we will also randomize some participants to make choices between letters to Congress (with certainty) and donations to carbon offsets.

Experimental Design Details

Randomization Method

Randomization in Qualtrics

Randomization Unit

Individual (though some aspects of the treatment, e.g. the demographics of the future participants to whom participants are paired are constant within demographic clusters).

Was the treatment clustered?

Experiment Characteristics

Sample size: planned number of clusters

(# clusters equal to number of observations below.)

Sample size: planned number of observations

-8,200 participants in the Wave-1 action experiment (may recruit more to achieve the required sample size for the WTP sub-experiment) -1,140 participants in the WTP sub-experiment -4,500 liberal participants in the Wave-2 action experiment -3,250-4,500 conservative participants in the Wave-2 action experiment (pre-registered to vary based on control mean among first 500 participants) In the follow-up experimentsL -1,000 participants in the follow-up WTP experiment -550 participants in the follow-up letter-certainty experiment -200 to 300 participants in the qualitative motivating survey

Sample size (or number of clusters) by treatment arms

Among 8,200 (or more) participants in the Wave-1 action experiment:
-3,400 participants in A0 group (half paired with liberal and half paired with conservative future participants). Note that we may increase the size of this group to recruit the pre-registered sample size for the WTP sub-experiment.
-2,400 participants in A1 group (half paired with liberal and half paired with conservative future participants)
-2,400 participants in A2 group (half paired with liberal and half paired with conservative future participants)

Among 1140 participants in WTP sub-experiment:
-660 participants in the variation with information on climate beliefs
-480 participants in the variation without this information

Among 4,500 liberals in the Wave-2 action experiment:
-2,250 participants in the group without invitations (B0)
-2,250 participants in the group with invitations (B1)

Likewise, the 3,250-4,500 conservative participants in the Wave-2 action experiment will be split evenly between seeing and not seeing an invitation to act from an earlier participant.

Among 1000 participants in the follow-up WTP experiment:
-500 participants who pass on profiles including their own political affiliation
-500 participants who can choose whether to include their own political affiliation in each profile

Minimum detectable effect size for main outcomes (accounting for sample design and clustering)

Supporting Documents and Materials

IRB